Coffee and Flowers
by xNightDreamerx
Summary: He was bitter like the coffee in mug every time he stayed up working on a case. She was sweet like the flowers in her shop. Both completely different. He dealt with death, she grew life. He was tall, she was short. So how'd these two meet? Well it all started with a familiar red string of fate.


_**This had taken so much of my time during the break, anyway's I hope you guys enjoy my first GaLe two-shot! Maybe multi-chaptery if I get enough reviews. :)**_

_**Also in progress a Rowen sequel, stupid brain is hitting me with ideas today.**_

* * *

It was just a normal day for Gajeel Redfox right after a long nap that the man desperately needed after a week of pulling all nighters for a homicide case. Gajeel felt something around his pinky and it was tight. Cracking an eye open he caught sight of a thin but visible enough to make out the crimson string leading out under the door of his bedroom to wherever the hell the long stand led to.

Grunting he pulled himself upright, Gajeel's first thought was who the hell thought of tying a string around his pinky as a prank, and cause it was lame. _Sure as hell ain't a good one too._ The man thought with a snort as he stumbled out of bed. Maybe the perpetrator was his cousin, Natsu who frequently stayed over from time to time because his girlfriend got tired of him and his antics.

_But lately the idiot hasn't been staying over much._ Noted Gajeel who was glad his cousin wasn't there to bother him any longer. Grinning at the thought of the one too many fights he had with the flame brain, Gajeel opened the door his mouth then dropped in horror at the sight of red string all around his entire beloved and once clean home. On the contrary to popular belief Gajeel liked to keep his house clean. So naturally swearing like a sailor the temperamental man angrily thought. Oh the bastard's in for it now.

Hearing the sound of his phone vibrate, Gajeel's red eyes glanced over to the caller id and grinned darkly. Well speak of the idiot. "Natsu you motherfucker! You think this is some kind of joke?"

"What the hell are you talking about? It's been months since I went to your place!"

"Then why the fuck is there red string ask over my apartment?" He heard Natsu mumble something under his breath, "Red string? Are you sure?"

Gajeel scowled, "I'm looking at our right now you dumbass!"

"I'm coming over." Without another word to the scowling man Natsu cut off the line leaving Gajeel to ponder on what he should do. I should cut it off.

Natsu Dragneel arrived to a very frustrated Gajeel who unsuccessfully couldn't get the dammed string off of his finger. Amused at the sight, the pink haired man leaned against the wall. "You tried to cut it off?"

"Yeah."

"Burning it?"

"It was under the frying pan so..."

"Dude you can't just cut it off. It won't break believe me I've tried too." Chuckled Natsu as the pierced man stared at him in disbelief, "You've had this before? And what do you mean it doesn't break? It's a piece of string!"

"It not an ordinary piece if red string." The doorbell rang, Natsu turned the knob and the door flew open a blonde haired woman came in. Gajeel instantly recognized the blonde as his cousin's girlfriend, Lucy Heartfilla otherwise nicknamed as, "Bunny girl?"

Lucy pressed her lips together into a frown, "Will you please stop calling me bunny girl? Just because I wore a bunny suit last Halloween doesn't mean you get to call me that!"

Gajeel shrugged before turning his head to Natsu who was still amused by the fact that his cousin tried to burn string with a frying pan. "So flame brain wanna tell me why your girl's here?"

"He asked me to come and explain the whole red string problem to you."

"It's just a piece of stupid string!" Gajeel growled. "What's there to explain?"

"Metal head you tried to burn it." With that being said Gajeel settled down onto the couch with a hefty sigh and waited for the woman to explain so he could get rid of the string once and for all! Once the man did that Lucy explained carefully trying her best not to confuse or anger the agitated detective, "The red string means that fate has paired you up with the person on the other side of the string. In other words you're going to meet your soulmate."

Gajeel blinked. Soulmate? Fate? Instantly he shook laughing his ass off like Natsu just popped out two heads. The pink haired man scowled, "Hey! This is serious, idiot! How'd you think Lucy and I got together?"

"Who'd want to be in a relationship with me? If you haven't noticed bunny girl, I'm not exactly the romantic type."

"That's why people in your unit are going to saying that you're gay." Smirked Natsu as Gajeel scowled before asking the blonde, "So anyways is the anything to make," he gestured to the pile of string, "go away so I can move on with my life?"

Lucy winced she was hoping that he wouldn't bring that up. "You have to find them."

Gajeel shot her a quizzical look as the woman said, "Follow the string until you find the other person with the red string around their pinky."

So that's how Gajeel Redfox spent his precious Saturday looking for his so called soulmate. The idiot couple told him that the string was only visible to the two people it's connected to and the people who have been through the same predicament.

Gajeel was in fact relieved cause no one seemed to notice the large amount of red string overflowing his both of his jacket pockets. He had a reputation to think about! While Gajeel followed the string his thoughts seemed to go wonder on how he landed himself in this and what the other person on the other end would be like. Busty? Dumb? Smart? Tall? Sexy?

_Don't get your hopes up Gajeel. She'll probably run away when she sees the red string on your finger. You're a cop; you don't have time to be in love._ Gajeel at that moment felt the red string tighten and pull, and he no longer felt the red string bunched up in his pockets. _Does this mean I'm getting closer?_ His eyes trialed to where the red string followed to a flower shop. This intrigued the detective as the door opened.

A blue haired with a red tattoo man came out carrying a bouquet of roses and a bakery take out box thankfully no red string until the second blue haired person came out. If he had to describe her it would be that she looked like a fairy. _A small pixie in her own environment._ The woman wore a green apron with the flower shop's name on it underneath that an orange off the shoulder sundress. Feeling the string tug him forward, Gajeel glanced down and saw unmistakably the red string around her pinky. _Holy crap._ His eyes widened as the string tugged again and the bluenette's hand moved towards his direction. This caught the woman's attention and she glanced at him. _Fuck._

Gajeel felt the need to get the hell out if there, but his body refused to move as he stood there across the street. _Fuck._ She started to move to the sidewalk, and his mind started to think of ways to escape. He knew he couldn't just run like a coward that'd just be depressing. He needed something! Anything!

"Gajeel-kun?" The brute man whipped around seeing one of his closest friends, Juvia Loxar. "Juvia." The woman smiled, "Juvia thought you had the day off."

"Yeah, I do. I just need to find someone."

"Want Juvia to help?"

"No I've already found he- them."

* * *

Levy McGarden was a logical person to a certain extent a dreamer as well. So as she saw the scowling man walk away with the bluenette was more than surprised at the fact that fate had this guy attached to her by a stupid red string that was fucking unbreakable. Believe her, she tried everything. Cutting it, burning it, throwing the pile of red string into the washing machine, and tried breaking it with her teeth.

"He even has a girlfriend, Lu-chan!" Exclaimed the florist as her best friend, Lucy listened to her complaints later that evening. The two women was at their favorite bar, Fairy Tail frequently drinking tequilas or martinis sometimes a mix of both after a long day of work they liked to relax despite the rowdiness of the bar members.

"That's what I thought when I met Natsu. What does he look like?" Lucy asked as Levy pondered on how to describe the man on the other end of the fateful string, "He looked like a gangster with piercings instead of eyebrows."

The blonde's stomach suddenly dropped at her short friend's words, "What?"

Levy nodded understanding what the blonde was thinking, "I know what kind of guy shaves his eyebrows and pierces iron on them. Oh! And there was some on the side of his nose!"

_Anyone can have piercings instead of eyebrows right?_ Lucy thought as she gestured the other woman to continue while taking in her second shot of tequila. Wanting to clearly hear her best friend's words before completely knocking herself into a happy drunk, "He had red eyes and long black hair that looked really messy."

Taking in the horrifying information that the bluenette's soulmate that was her boyfriend's cousin, the blonde didn't say anything for a long moment since she knew for a fact that Levy would be going through the same thing that Lucy herself went a year ago with Natsu. "Levy-chan, what did the woman next to the guy look like?"

Levy wasn't sure why she didn't respond immediately to her busty friend's question and instead stiffened like a heartbroken woman as the string on her finger tugged and gained on some noticeable weight. "Levy-chan?"

Blinking her eyes regained their focus onto Lucy as Levy replied, "She had blue hair down the back of her shoulders, pale skin, and wore a due hat that matched her coat. She had a pretty big bust too."

Lucy winced knowing that Levy would feel insecure about her assets. With that being said the blonde herself wasn't sure how to address Levy's problem and instead said quickly, "So did you like Bloodlines?"

The mere mention of the brainy alchemist turned witch in training and hot vampire love interest spiked the bluenette's bookworm soul and immediately Levy launched her opinion to Lucy who was glad that the topic of Gajeel Redfox was postponed for the moment. That was until her idiot boyfriend came exploding through the door like a manic before shouting over his shoulder, "Hurry up metal-brain!"

"Uh Levy?"

"Yeah?"

"About the guy you were talking about... He's-"

"NATSU!" Levy felt the tugging grow stronger as Lucy finished off her sentence, "Natsu's cousin."

"LUCY!" _Fuck._ Lucy thought as her boyfriend dragged his cousin detective by the collar of his black long sleeved shirt. Her bluenette friend turned and saw the tall dark haired guy from down the street.

One look at the scowling Gajeel was all Levy needed to turn around and mumble, "I think I might need another glass, Lu-chan."

* * *

At first Gajeel wasn't sure before why his idiot cousin dragged him to the bar, but now he was. Being the detective that he was cause Gajeel to believe that his cousin and girlfriend deliberately set him up. _God knows how they found out. Juvia maybe. Through she shouldn't be concerned with my nonexistent love life, when she's got problems work the stripper and his older brother._

"Will you stop it?" The scowling man blinked at the sound of Natsu's voice before turning to the pink haired man beside him, "What?"

Natsu growled, "You're making a bad impression on yourself!"

Gajeel snorted, "Not like I need someone else's opinion of myself. I know who I am."

"Oh really? Cause last time I checked you were looking up your old man on the records!" Gajeel slammed his fist against the wooden table, "I thought I told you never to say that again!"

"Do we need to pay for another table, Natsu? Gajeel?" The two men stiffened at the demonic tone of the head barmaid, Mirajane Strauss. Eyes slowly looking up to the smiling white haired beauty ego just happened to be serving the ladies at the table their second drinks. Everyone knew about the former model's reputation when it came to destroying her bar. Almost all the rowdy drinkers had a taste of Payback Poison after they had destroyed one of her tables and chairs. "N-no!"

"Good!" Mirajane beamed before striding of at the call for more drinks from Marco. Lucy awkwardly said, "Natsu, my phone's about to die out you got a charger?"

Natsu nodded getting up from his seat, "In the car."

"Great! I'll be right back, Levy-chan!"

The bluenette in front of Gajeel nodded waving as the blonde dragged her boyfriend with her leaving the two at the table awkwardly averting each other's eyes. Gajeel speed his drink as Levy said, "I'm Levy... You?"

"Gajeel Redfox... I'm not a people person."

"I can see that." Levy commenting noting that this whole time he kept on scowling while and Gajeel continued, "So don't expect anything from this- whatever it is."

"I'm not expecting anything really, seeing as how we both have someone else in our lives. So how about friends instead? It's better than ignoring each other." Levy shrugged.

Gajeel paused to think about her offer as friends. The only friends he had even bothered to talk to were Juvia, Aria, Sol, and Totomaru, but they weren't the most normal of people, mostly bizarre in some aspects. The detective didn't even have time to process Levy's comment on him being in an actual relationship when she threw a daring observation, "So even a guy like you is scared of Mira?"

"I'm not scared of her!" Gajeel growled as Levy laughed, "Payback Poison."

Instinctively he covered his mouth remembering the awful drink that Mira claimed that was beer. The woman was truly a devil when it came to revenge, causing many people like Natsu to psychological freak out after the aftereffects of his brawls with Gray or Gajeel. This caused Levy to laugh even harder and Gajeel to scowl even harder. "S-shut up!"

"Since you already know what I do for a living, what do you do?" Levy sipped her drink.

"I'm a detective." The bluenette started at him for a moment before commenting, "That's unexpected. I figured you'd be the type to ignore the law."

"At first I did, but something in my life changed that and got me into law enforcement. So what about you? What got you into growing daises and roses?" Maybe it was the string's influence or not, but Gajeel surprisingly found it easy to talk to the shrimp.

"Well it was one of my childhood friends that got me into it." Levy started out, "I had just gotten laid off my job so I took him up on his offer. Now I enjoy the job. It's got good pay so yeah. Hey what time is it?"

_Already ready to get rid of me?_ Gajeel thought as he answered, "It's only ten thirty, shrimp."

Levy abruptly stood up choosing to ignore her companion's new nickname for her, "Already?! I gotta go!"

While the shortie was gathering her things Gajeel asked, "You on some kind of curfew with your parents?"

Levy turned red with anger, "For your information, I live alone! I have a big order for a wealthy woman that I have to get done by tomorrow morning, I would have done it earlier if Jet didn't ram into the newly delivered fertilizer. Did you know what I had to do to get the stink off of his clothes?!"

She threw her hands up in the air as Gajeel stood there practically stunned by her reaction as the clearly fuming woman poked him in the chest, "As much as I enjoyed this talk with you, I have to go now!"

Without another word to amused man she stalked off not before she heard him say, "If you enjoyed it then how about I walk you there?"

Turning around in disbelief she said what everyone in the bar was thinking in shock, "_What?_"

Gajeel awkwardly rubbed the back of his neck while looking down at the dirty wooden floor, "I heard on the radio that there were some real sickos out there kidnapping women, and so- just so you don't end up like them. Mind if I walk you there?"

Noticing that the bar had gone quiet, the scowling detective snarled, "What the hell are you guys looking at?"

Immediately some of the drinkers scooted away from their places on the benches or backed away from the scary detective. Those near Mirajane and Cana, the resident gambler had already started making gambling pots for the blue haired bookworm and the red eyed metal brain. Levy shaking off her initial surprise smiled and said, "I'd like that, Gajeel."


End file.
